Friends and coworkers at the microbrewery Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora are having a weight loss challenge this spring. Every monday they weigh in to see their results. Monday, April 5, 2010. They will continue to enjoy their beer while lossing weight. A couple of empty and half full glasses of beer in the brewing room. Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post

A bunch of guys sitting around in the back room of a brewery, drinking beer and talking about . . . weight-loss plans?

“We consume a lot of beer here, and we’re all fatter than we wanted to be,” says Dry Dock Brewing owner Kevin DeLange of that fateful day in January when the gang at the Aurora brewpub decided they had to do something about their expanding waistlines. The occasional hockey and racquetball games were no match for the prize-winning but high-calorie beverages they consumed nearly every day.

In the spirit of boys’ clubs everywhere, a competition was born: The Beer Belly Meltdown. Who could lose 10 percent of his body weight first? Ten players put in $50 each toward the pot.

Rules were written:

• Prior to first weigh-in, no sandbagging or “Tom Foolery” to artificially increase your weight.

• No giving up beer. You may cut back, but you may not give up beer altogether. You work at (or frequent) a brewery. If you need to give up beer to lose weight, join Weight Watchers.

• The last person to lose 10 percent of his weight by June 28 must wash the other contestants’ cars, wearing just a swimsuit and sandals.

Head brewer Bill Eye shared his love of cured meats and cheeses (high protein, low carbs) with the others, who were trying to eat low-fat.

“We spent the first two weeks sabotaging each other left and right,” says DeLange, 36. But once the weigh-ins revealed a nearly across-the-board drop among the 10 players, the guys got serious. They are now in Week 13 of the Meltdown and collectively have lost 130 pounds.

“I’ve lost 9.6 pounds, and all I did was stop drinking soda,” says Aurora water worker Robert Justen, 40. “I went from a 12-pack to one can a week.”

Jeff Jameson, 31, works at Dry Dock’s partner company, the Brew Hut. He added cardio to his weightlifting routine. “I really started dropping a lot when I started swimming.”

They began to notice their weaknesses. “Once you start drinking a couple of beers, dessert looks more tempting,” says Jameson.

DeLange stopped snacking on late-night pizzas and now just squirts pizza sauce on a piece of ham when the pizza craving hits.

Brian Sherry spends most of his day on his feet teaching fifth grade, but as anyone in their 40s knows, it wasn’t enough. “I’m 46. It was time.” He started walking 4 miles a day and eats oatmeal for breakfast and salads at work, trying to have six small, healthy meals a day.

At 27, social media coordinator Walt Chleva is the youngest in the group and had never even thought to count calories before. What has he learned?

“Lots! Portion size is really important. It’s all about calories in, calories out. You gotta take care of your body, ’cause you only got one of them. And you are what you eat. When you’re eating healthier, you feel better.”

He blames five years in the Marine Corps for his gluttonous eating habits. “I used to eat a whole pizza, no problem. I have to attribute some of that to the chow-down mentality of basic training. When I got out of the Marines, I let myself go a little, mainly because I wasn’t working out as much,” Chleva says.

Chleva and Bernie Taillon, 38, were the first to reach the 10 percent goal, in Week 8 of the Meltdown, and split the $500 pot. Chleva says he has plateaued since then but plans to start training with some of the other Meltdown Men for Tri the Creek on June 5. “It’s basically about getting your body used to doing long- distance swimming, running and bike riding,” he says.

The competitiveness has evolved into a camaraderie as the guys have seen results.

“This is a boys club if I’ve ever seen one,” says Debbie Sher, sipping a beer in the brewing room after work. “Yeah, I see a difference in almost every one of them.”

Tap room manager Erin Schumann says she doesn’t begrudge the guys their games. “I was invited, but I just wanted to see all the boys duke it out. Now everybody’s taking it really seriously, and I think they feel better. It’s been really awesome to see. It has changed their lives in some ways.”

One 12-ounce serving of “regular” beer has about 150 calories. If you have one per night, that adds up to 1,050 calories per week, which works out to about an extra 15 pounds per year. Here’s how the drinks and bar snacks add up:

To burn 150 calories (roughly one regular beer), a 5-foot-9, 160-pound, 30-year-old man needs to walk about 40 minutes at 3 mph, a moderate pace. Here are some other ways a 160-pounder can burn off that brew:

Thanks to brewmaster and dedicated cyclist David Zuckerman, Boulder Beer Co. maintains a particularly trash-prone portion of the Goose Creek Trail between 30th Street and Foothills Parkway, just south of the brewery.

Zuckerman has been riding his bike 8 miles roundtrip to work for 20 of Boulder Beer’s 30 years. For him, cycling and beer are a way of life.

Q: How did the cycling habit get started?

A: I started riding in college when I won won my first mountain bike in a contest that Apple computer held. I didn’t buy a car until I was convinced it wouldn’t take over my lifestyle. I bought a car in ’99 — that was my first car.

Q: So you don’t shop at Sam’s Club — don’t need the big trunk?

A: Hah, no. I’ve got a little bag that can hold a sixpack or groceries. I ride to the grocery store.

Q: What advice can you give someone who wants to ride more and drive less?

A: Take small slices. Make conscious choices. The cool thing is you start by going from point A to point B and you become comfortable with the route. Then, because of intellectual curiosity, you say, “What does it look like over there?” And you add another mile to the route.

Q: So it’s not really a “workout.”

A: You’re outside, but you’re not doing work. It’s travel and entertainment in one activity.

Q: What kind of bike do you ride?

A: I have a Marin Team Issue mountain bike with slicks and panniers. It’s got at least 50,000 miles on it. And I have a custom road bike that was built in Longmont by Primus Mootry.

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